Bernard Wright is an American funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 and jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 keyboardist who began his career as a session musician and later released several solo albums in the 1980s

1980s

File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...

.

Wright was offered a slot touring with Lenny White

Lenny White

Leonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...

 when he was 13, and he played with Tom Browne at age 16. GRP Records

GRP Records

GRP Records is an American jazz record company, owned by Universal Music Group and operates through its Verve Music Group. The company's name has had different meanings. In its early days, it stood for "Grusin/Rosen Productions," after the founders...

 signed him in 1981 and released his debut LP, Nard, tracks from which have been prominently sampled by Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre

Andre Romelle Young , primarily known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records...

, Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg

Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...

, Skee-Lo

Skee-Lo

Antoine Roundtree , better known as Skee-Lo, is an American rapper. He is best known for his 1995 song, "I Wish", which became a top-40 hit in several countries....

,and LL Cool J

LL Cool J

James Todd Smith , better known as LL Cool J , is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and actor...

 among countless others. He followed with Funky Beat on Arista

Arista Records

Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...

 and Mr. Wright on EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

. The latter of these albums included his biggest R&B hit, "Who Do You Love" for which a video was made. Wright has also appeared on recordings by musicians such as Cameo

Cameo (band)

Cameo is an American soul-influenced funk group that formed in the early 1970s. Cameo was initially a 13-member group known as the New York City Players; this name was later changed to Cameo to avoid a lawsuit from Ohio Players, another group from that era. Since then, Cameo has recorded several...

, Bobby Brown

Bobby Brown

Robert Barisford "Bobby" Brown is an American R&B singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and dancer. After success in pop group New Edition, Brown began his solo career in 1987 and had a string of Top 10 Billboard hits, culminating in a Grammy Award. He was a pioneer of New Jack Swing music, a...

, Pieces of a Dream

Pieces of a Dream (band)

Pieces of a Dream is an American R&B/jazz group from Philadelphia. The group was formed in 1976 by bassist Cedric Napoleon, drummer Curtis Harmon, and keyboardist James Lloyd. At the time, the three were all teenagers...

, Charles Earland

Charles Earland

Charles Earland was an American jazz composer, organist, and saxophonist in the soul jazz idiom.-Biography:...

, Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...

 and Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

. He attended the Fiorello Laguardia High School of Music & The Performing Arts in New York. Classmates included writer Carl Hancock Rux

Carl Hancock Rux

‎Carl Hancock Rux is an award winning writer and performer; former Head of the MFA Writing for Performance Program at the California Institute of the Arts and has taught or been in residence at University of California–San Diego, Stanford University, University of Massachusetts Amherst,...

, gospel recording artist Desiree Coleman Jackson, rappers Slick Rick

Slick Rick

Richard Walters , better known by his stage name Slick Rick is a Grammy-nominated English-American rapper...

 and Dana Dane

Dana Dane

Dana McLeese, better known by his stage name Dana Dane, is an American hip hop recording artist known for performance of humorous lyrics and for his fashion sense.-Early life:...

. Since his recording days, Wright continued playing keyboard in the Dallas area.

Albums

• Nard
  Nard (album)
  Released in 1981 when Wright was only 18 years old, this album would chart at number 7 on the Jazz Album charts.-Track listing:#Haboglabotribin' - 3:17#Firebolt Hustle - 4:11...
  
   (GRP Records
  GRP Records
  GRP Records is an American jazz record company, owned by Universal Music Group and operates through its Verve Music Group. The company's name has had different meanings. In its early days, it stood for "Grusin/Rosen Productions," after the founders...
  
  , 1981) U.S. #116, U.S. Jazz #7, U.S. R&B #23
• Funky Beat (Arista Records
  Arista Records
  Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...
  
  , 1983) U.S. R&B #58
• Mr. Wright (EMI-Manhattan Records
  Manhattan Records
  Manhattan Records is a United States record label, owned by EMI and operates as a subsidiary of The Blue Note Label Group.-Company history:Manhattan Records was formed in 1984 by Bruce Lundvall, and was later renamed EMI Manhattan Records after absorbing EMI America Records imprint...
  
  , 1985) U.S. R&B #25
• I Can Tell (Manhattan)
• Fresh Hymns (Benson Records
  Benson Records
  Benson Records was founded by Bob Benson & John T. Benson, beginning as the John T. Benson Music Publishing Company in 1902. The record label started out as Heart Warming Records and would come to house labels such as Impact Records, Greentree Records, RiverSong, StarSong and Home Sweet Home...
  
  , 1990)

Singles

• "Just Chillin' Out" (1981) U.S. Club Play #85
• "Won't You Let Me Love You" (1982) U.S. R&B #88
• "Funky Beat" (1983) U.S. R&B #39
• "Who Do You Love" (1985) U.S. Dance #44, U.S. R&B #6